The Mark on the Wall
Language: content and function words; strong and weak forms
Understand how words work in sentences and speech.
Content words carry meaning that can be defined: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
Function words do a grammatical job: conjunctions, articles, pronouns, determiners, intensifiers and question words. Prepositions can be argued either way.
Function words are what we drop in a telegram: 'saw mark on wall'. They form closed sets (new ones are rarely added), while nouns are an open set (new ones appear all the time).
In connected speech, small words often have weak forms: 'is' is /iz/ when said alone, but /z/ in 'He's a doctor'.
Other words with strong and weak forms: and, had, not, can, was, for, to, of.
Practise this lesson
Questions that get harder as you improve, a Tutor that helps without giving the answer away, and progress you can see. Free for every learner.
No account, no email address. Opens the real product.